Web widget label / text

Hello, we need to be able to add a text label in the web widget (mobile version). We noticed that changes in the text are only reflected in the desktop version of the widget and not added in the mobile version.

Thanks for the feedback Jorge. It was a conscious decision to only show the icon on mobile and not the text label string on the Web Widget launcher because of the limited screen size and the potential to obscure other elements of customer websites. I'd like to hear more about your need to retain the text on mobile, and welcome others to weigh in also.

We would really like to add a text label next to the icon as well, or even replace the icon with a text label. Icons can be easily misunderstood or misinterpreted by users. Icons also don't properly set the user's expectations for why they should click on the button or what they can expect to find if they do, while text labels can be much more clear. The Nielsen Norman Group has written at length about icon usability and the importance of text labels accompanying them for clarity: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/icon-usability/.

The text labels don't need to be very long — even "help" or "chat" in place of the icon would be more useful for users.

Has there been any user testing by the Zendesk product team around how icon only vs text label for the Web Widget launcher affects chat rates? We've noticed that since migrating from our old Zopim widget that said "Chat" for mobile users to our new Zendesk Web Widget that only shows the chat icon on mobile, our chat rate has dropped by over 45%.

Is there any customization via the Web Widget API we can put in place to add those text labels or force it to use the desktop version that includes those text labels?

Great explanation Harvey! Exactly the same way we feel. Widget usage decreases a lot by not having text in the widget (or the capability to change the icon with design / text embedded). We are looking to use something short as well like "Ayuda" or "Chat". At some point our developers were able to accomplish this but since it was not native the development wasn't that stable.

This is great feedback guys! We will investigate creating a setting (in admin or via API) so that you have the choice to include text or not in the launcher on mobile.

In the meantime, if the current experience is negatively impacting you, you can always create a custom launcher and then use various APIs to control the Web Widget. Here is how you would go about it:

On page load, use hide to hide our launcher, and instead display your own custom built launcher

When a user clicks your custom launcher, use open and show to trigger the Web Widget to appear

When a user clicks to minimize/close the Web Widget, use on close to trigger your custom launcher to appear again

If you want to make your custom launcher dynamic to show a special icon or label when a Chat agent is available, you can use on chat status to listen for events (like chat online/offline) and modify your custom launcher label/icon accordingly